Just call me Godma

Baptism ceremony & Noah's ark cake for Alyssa and Zachary

Today, I had the honour of officially accepting Alyssa Wong as my god daughter. The ceremony took place in a Catholic church in Melbourne.

The setting was peaceful, serene and very symbolic. It was interesting that the unlikeliest couple were asked to be godparents given that I'm a Protestant and AJ (the godfather) is of Jewish descent. You should have seen the look of his face when the priest asked us if we "believed that Jesus Christ is the son of God, was crucified, died and rose again for the salvation of sins"! AJ stood stone still so I quickly said, "We do"! :-)

I also enjoyed helping to make the Noah's Ark cake to mark the special occasion. Carina, her aunty & I slaved for over 6 hours to create the masterpiece and judging from the response, it was well worth it. During the lunch at an Italian restaurant, other patrons came over to our table and started snapping photos of the cake :-)

I shall have to spend more time in Melbourne so that Alyssa won't forget her Aunty Jo Jo.

Brush with AFL hall of fame

Sat next to Brent Guerra (Hawthorn No. 18) on the plane to Adelaide

My four-year stay in Australia taught me one thing. Sports is a religion and professional players are gods.

I learnt the rules and watched my share of weekend cricket, rugby (union & league) and footie just so that I could understand conversations on Monday mornings. Seriously, no one speaks to you if you're not talking sport.

One of my favourite sports was AFL (Australian Football League) or footie. It's like no other game on the planet (a bit like American football played on a cricket oval without protection). The players are usually tall, fit and wear tight jerseys, which probably explains why it's my favourite spectator sport :-)

To my delight, I found myself sitting next to a professional footie player on the plane to Adelaide last Friday. He was actually all over me (ahem!). Probably because he had to climb over my semi-comatose form to get to the toilet!

Brent Guerra is a Hawthorn forward and has been playing for 11 seasons, starting at age 17. He and his girlfriend Rachel were heading to a wedding in Adelaide. We had a nice long chinwag about footie, travels and plans for the future. Looks like I've got to start following Hawthorne now, in addition to the Lions, Swans and Cats.

Beautiful Barossa

We spent last Saturday at the world-renowned Barossa Valley - home of the South Australian wine industry. It was very hot (39C) but that didn't stop us from enjoying the stunning views, gorgeous rose gardens and sampling lovely local wines. We stopped at Chateau Barossa, Peter Lehmann's and a fruit wine place. In addition to the wines, we were enchanted by the profusion of roses all over the valley. One garden worthy of mention is Queen Elizabeth's favourite at Chateau Barossa.

Enjoying a day out with mum & dad at the vineyards

This Adelaide holiday has been very different from my normal travels. I usually travel on my own but this time, I'm part of a large family entourage including mum, dad, aunt, uncle, granny and cousins and it's been FUN! The jokes, laughter and family time have been an eye-opener for me. A big thank you to Uncle David & Aunty Lai Sum for the invitation. And to Aaron & Pik Yee for playing tour guides.

(L) Aaron & Pik Yee with their darling Poh Poh

(R) Family photo outside Peter Lehmann
(although Pik Yee thinks we look more like convicts from Pudu Jail..haha)

Adelaide wedding

My little cousin Aaron got married in Adelaide this week and we all descended on the sleepy capital of South Australia. The Chongs, Wongs and Yeohs had a whale of a time with a laugh-a-minute throughout the five days. Even our 83-year old Granny joined the conga line during the wedding dinner!

Hope we didn't scare poor Jocelyn too much...welcome to the family, my dear...we're really quite normal - I promise! ;-)